Upon receiving the
news, Hinostroza told CPJ: "It will be an honor for me to receive this
recognition, which will drive me to continue working for freedom of expression
in my country and support the different processes that are being developed
around the world to defend this right."

Paul Steiger,
editor-in-chief of ProPublica and former editor-at-large of the Wall Street
Journal, and a member of CPJ's Advisory Board, will also be presented with CPJ's
2013 Burton
Benjamin Award for his unwavering commitment to press freedom.

Daniel
L. Doctoroff, chief executive and president of Bloomberg LP, is the dinner
chairman, and Lara
Logan, CBS News correspondent and CPJ board member, will host the event. The
award ceremony will be held on Tuesday, November 26, 2013, at the
Waldorf-Astoria in New York. For tickets, please contact CPJ's Development Department.

CPJ co-hosts journalist summit in Istanbul

Since the outbreak of war in Syria, dozens of Syrian
journalists have gone into exile. Attempts to provide assistance to them have
been hamstrung by a lack of coordination among various groups. This month, CPJ
and the Rory Peck Trust brought together several local and international
journalists in a summit in Istanbul, called "How to Support Journalists
Covering the Syrian Conflict: A Summit on Joint Strategies for Assistance."

CPJ board members Sandra Mims Rowe and John Carroll,
Executive Director Joel Simon, and other CPJ staff attended the conference.

"International, regional and local organizations, as
well as news outlets, all participated and agreed on the need for a more
coordinated response to local and foreign journalists covering the Syrian
crisis. We now have the foundation to help make that happen," said María Salazar-Ferro,
coordinator of CPJ's Journalist Assistance program.

CPJ's Journalist Assistance program has seen a
marked increase in the number of requests for assistance it receives on behalf
of Syrian journalists and foreign freelancers covering the conflict in Syria.
CPJ's Middle East and North Africa program has been documenting the situation
for journalists in Syria as it
unfolds.

Advocating for press freedom in Turkey

The release of CPJ's October
2012 report on Turkey had a huge impact, but led to an acrimonious war of
words with the Turkish government. In an effort to try and maintain this
critical posture while opening a dialogue, CPJ carried out a mission to
Istanbul this month. CPJ Executive Director Joel Simon and CPJ board members
Sandra Mims Rowe and John Carroll met with officials at the Turkish Ministry of
Justice in Ankara and delivered a letter
calling on Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to work to ensure greater press
freedom in the country.

The letter outlined the threats and legal action
facing journalists working in Turkey and made recommendations to the government
that included releasing all imprisoned journalists and halting the criminal
prosecution of journalists. The letter received widespread local and
international coverage, including in The
Associated Press and the BBC.

CPJ's Simon described the meeting with the Turkish
officials in a mission
journal on September 23, 2013: "The tone was open and constructive, and, in
an effort to improve communication and build confidence, we agreed to share
with the Justice Ministry a list of jailed journalists we are considering for
inclusion on our 2013 imprisoned list, which will be published in December. The
ministry, in turn, pledged to provide its perspective on the cases. This is a
normal part of our reporting process and we will, of course, take the government's
views into account when making our own independent determination.

Working to liberate a Liberian editor

President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf took office amid
pledges to heal Liberia's wounds following the violent and protracted civil
war. While the country has become more stable, repression against journalists
has not ceased.

A journalist was jailed in August for his inability
to pay a harsh fine in connection with a libel conviction.
Rodney Sieh, editor of FrontPageAfrica, was convicted in relation to a story
published on the findings of a government investigation that accused a former
official of corruption.

CPJ voiced concern about Sieh's health,
which reportedly deteriorated in prison. In early September, CPJ also wrote an open
letter to President Sirleaf, calling on her to reform the libel laws in the
country. CPJ received a response
to its statement about Sieh's health and the open letter to the president. The
US ambassador to Liberia also told CPJ that President Sirleaf had mentioned
CPJ's letter in talks with the ambassador.

CPJ secured a meeting with Liberian President Ellen
Johnson Sirleaf this month, on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly in
New York City. In the meeting, CPJ Africa Advocacy Coordinator Mohamed Keita
raised concerns of the country's libel laws and specifically mentioned Sieh's
case.

"This politically tainted case against Rodney Sieh
illustrates the urgent need for legal reform in the country and the perils the
press faces when scrutinizing powerful public figures or reporting the findings
of government inquiries on corruption," said CPJ's Keita. "We were pleased with
the opportunity to meet with the president and told her that we would continue
to advocate for these necessary reforms."

Release of a Chinese blogger

While Chinese authorities freed
imprisoned freelance journalist Shi Tao on August 23, his release was not
publicized until early September. The journalist had been imprisoned since November
2004 on charges of "leaking state secrets abroad" for messages he wrote
summarizing government restrictions on domestic media reporting on the 15th
anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre.

CPJ honored
Shi with its 2005 International Press Freedom Award in absentia. The
organization has been advocating
for his release since he was condemned to prison, and has written letters
to Chinese authorities and U.S. President
Barack Obama, and criticized
the appellate court's decision to uphold the term.

"Shi Tao's release is welcome news, of course, even
though he never should have been jailed in the first place," said CPJ Asia
Program Director Bob Dietz. "But it is an anomaly in China's increasingly repressive
attitude toward online activity. Don't expect China to be a freer country
because it has released a journalist from unjustified imprisonment."

Journalism and democracy in the Americas

In testimony
delivered to the Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere of U.S. House of
Representatives this month, CPJ's Carlos Lauría, senior program coordinator for
the Americas, pointed out that violence and official harassment are the trends that
illustrate the challenges facing the press, and linked the importance of
journalism and free speech to democracy.

"In different countries throughout the hemisphere,
broad aspects of public discourse are limited by the threat of physical
violence, government censorship, restrictive legislation, and financial
pressures," CPJ's Lauría said in the testimony. "The lack of vigorous debates
on issues of public interest, which is the cornerstone of modern democracies,
is creating political instability, reducing government accountability, and
compromising economic development."

CPJ's Americas program has long advocated for the
importance of a free press to secure democracy and good governance in the
region.

Petitioning for investigations in Egypt

CPJ has documented the deaths of nine journalists
who were killed in
relation to their work in Egypt, including five who were killed since the
ouster of President Mohamed Morsi in July.

The organization launched a petition
on September 4, calling on Egyptian authorities to conduct serious and
efficient investigations into the journalist killings. The petition has already
been signed by more than 1,000 individuals, including several prominent
Egyptian journalists, which CPJ called "a hopeful sign for the future of the
Egyptian media."

As CPJ's Middle East and North Africa Program
Coordinator Sherif Mansour said in a blog
on September 5, "The dead include journalists who worked for the government, the opposition, and, for
the first time in Egypt, international news
organizations. This puts considerable pressure on the current military-led
government to ensure the Egyptian judiciary conducts independent and impartial
reviews of each of these cases."

United States: On October 10 in Washington, CPJ will
release its first-ever comprehensive report on press freedom in the United
States. The report is being written by Leonard Downie Jr.,
journalism professor at Arizona State University and former executive editor of The
Washington Post.